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Sport Nation
“I hate it”: Why the AFL should not tolerate an Eagles priority pick
Jaiden Sciberras • July 22nd, 2025 5:16 pm
Are the West Coast Eagles deserving of an assistance package from the AFL?
Over the course of season 2025, the Eagles have been well below par, winning just one single game over St Kilda and most recently falling by 49 points to fellow bottom dweller Richmond.
Since the start of 2022, the Eagles have won just 10 games, with all likelihood suggesting the wooden spoon locks will fail to win another game over the last five rounds.
The AFL hands out priority picks based off a range of criteria, including weighted premiership points, injury rates, percentages and previous success, with the Kangaroos the last to receive concession picks in 2022, and the Gold Coast Suns selecting Matt Rowell with the number one pick provided via an assistance package in 2019.
While West Coast’s lack of success over years past would suggest that they may have a case, SEN’s Tim Watson believes that the concept of concession packages are a reward for list mismanagement at the helm of the club.
“I hate it,” Watson told SEN Breakfast.
“I hate this whole idea of priority picks. It goes to the heart of your administration of your club.
“If you’re making poor decisions, if you’re not doing your planning correctly and you’re not putting the right people in place in your organisation, the rest of the competition shouldn’t have to pay for that.
“You should pay for that as a team and a club, and you should go through the hard years of a rebuild and then identify the right people that can assist you in that rebuild, as opposed to the AFL just handing you some form of advantage over the rest of the competition.
“I just don’t think that we should tolerate it.”
In spite of their premiership triumph in 2018, West Coast’s list management decisions over the course of the last decade have certainly left a lot to desire.
In 2019, the club traded away two first round draft picks along with a selection of later picks to Geelong for Tim Kelly. In 2022, they split their second overall pick to draft Reuben Ginbey (No.9) and Elijah Hewett (No.14), while in 2024, the Eagles traded away their third overall pick in exchange for Liam Baker and Matt Owies.
In 2024, West Coast opted to select Bo Allan (No.16), Jobe Shanahan (No.30) and Tom Gross (No.46) in the National draft. Prior to this season, West Coast landed Harley Reid with the first overall pick in 2023 alongside Archer Reid (No.30) and Clay Hall (No.38).
Other notable selections include Campbell Chesser (No.14, 2021), Brady Hough (No.31, 2021), Reuben Ginbey (No.9, 2022), Elijah Hewett (No.14, 2022), while from 2015-2020, the club only used two first round selections (Daniel Venables - No.13, 2016, Jarrod Brander - No.13, 2017).
During that time, the Eagles also opted to extend the contracts of veterans Tim Kelly and Elliot Yeo until the end of the 2027 season. Since Yeo’s extension (mid-2024), the premiership star has played just nine games due to injury, while Tim Kelly has been omitted twice this season.
Although a majority of their young talent still carry immense potential, the club finds itself in this position due to somewhat inadequate future planning and sub-par list management over the course of their successful streak throughout the late 2010's.
